Favorite Authority Quotes

252. "But in our age the appeal to authority is weak, and I am of my age."Author: Allen Tate

253. "Outside of the Constitution we have no legal authority more than private citizens, and within it we have only so much as that instrument gives us. This broad principle limits all our functions and applies to all subjects."Author: Andrew Johnson

254. "Any commander who fails to exceed his authority is not of much use to his subordinates."Author: Arleigh Burke

255. "I try to avoid having thoughts. They lead to other thoughts, and—if you're not careful—those lead to actions. Actions make you tired. I have this on rather good authority from someone who once read it in a book."Author: Brandon Sanderson

256. "For if we are observed in all matters, we are constantly under threat of correction, judgment, criticism, even plagiarism of our own uniqueness. We become children, fettered under watchful eyes, constantly fearful that — either now or in the uncertain future — patterns we leave behind will be brought back to implicate us, by whatever authority has now become focused upon our once-private and innocent acts. We lose our individuality, because everything we do is observable and recordable."[The Eternal Value of Privacy, May 18, 2006]"Author: Bruce Schneier

257. "If we can't think for ourselves, if we're unwilling to question authority, then we're just putty in the hands of those in power. But if the citizens are educated and form their own opinions, then those in power work for us. In every country, we should be teaching our children the scientific method and the reasons for a Bill of Rights. With it comes a certain decency, humility and community spirit. In the demon-haunted world that we inhabit by virtue of being human, this may be all that stands between us and the enveloping darkness."Author: Carl Sagan

258. "It turns out that indecision is a path itself; but figuratively, a vertical path - up or down - meaning it isn't always a fruitless path. One is forgotten, but the other is glorified. To be what they call 'middle-of-the-road' in most cases just means you have a hard time figuring out who between options is dumber. So quite often those who refused to decide were, after all, the bold individuals, the influential ones, the creative ones, those who snatched their own authority."Author: Criss Jami

259. "Most rules are made by people with no authority who want to control and limit you from reaching your true potential. Ignore them, break their rules, and wave at them as you soar past them to greatness."Author: Dan Pearce

261. "I doubt she likes the idea of seeing him put back in a cage." "Maybe not," he said. "But she knows that the Authority are the only people who might be able to help him." "Or kill him," I said. "That too. What is life without risk?" "Long?" Terric laughed, a sort of high whooping that made me—and Zayvion, much to my surprise—smile. Contagious. For all he had a serious exterior, Terric was the guy you'd want to sit next to at a funny movie, just to hear him laugh."Author: Devon Monk

262. "The desire we so often hear expressed today for "episcopal figures," "priestly men," "authoritative personalities" springs frequently enough from a spiritually sick need for the admiration of men, for the establishment of visible human authority, because the genuine authority of service appears to be so unimpressive."Author: Dietrich Bonhoeffer

263. "I have taken this step because I want the discipline, the fire and the authority of the Church. I am hopelessly unworthy of it, but I hope to become worthy."Author: Edith Sitwell

264. "But she had learnt, in those solemn hours of thought, that she herself must one day answer for her own life, and what she had done with it; and she tried to settle that most difficult problem, how much was to be utterly merged in obedience to authority, and how much might be set apart for freedom in working."Author: Elizabeth Gaskell

265. "I agree--the world isn't a nursery. But the very fact that this world is so challenging is exactly why you sometimes must reach out of its jurisdiction for help, appealing to a higher authority in order to find your comfort." (53)"Author: Elizabeth Gilbert

266. "The soul that is yielded to Christ becomes His own fortress, which He holds in a revolted world, and He intends that no authority shall be known in it except His own. A soul thus kept in possession by the heavenly agencies is impregnable to the assaults of Satan."Author: Ellen G. White

267. "The idea of authority, which they represented, was associated in our minds with a greater insight and a more humane wisdom."Author: Erich Maria Remarque

268. "As a result of my study, I came to the conclusion that a common supreme authority was undesirable."Author: Fredrik Bajer

269. "As long as a man knows very well the strength and weaknesses of his teaching, his art, his religion, its power is still slight. The pupil and apostle who, blinded by the authority of the master and by the piety he feels toward him, pays no attention to the weaknesses of a teaching, a religion, and soon usually has for that reason more power than the master. The influence of a man has never yet grown great without his blind pupils. To help a perception to achieve victory often means merely to unite it with stupidity so intimately that the weight of the latter also enforces the victory of the former."Author: Friedrich Nietzsche

270. "In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual."Author: Galileo Galilei

271. "Everywhere, authority and tradition have to justify themselves in the face of questions."Author: Gustav Heinemann

272. "When we speak of power, we mean man's control over the minds and actions of other men. By political power we refer to the mutual relations of control among the holders of public authority and between the latter and the people at large."Author: Hans J. Morgenthau

273. "The white man comes, pale as the dawn, with a load of thought, with a slumbering intelligence as a fire raked up, knowing well what he knows, not guessing but calculating; strong in community, yielding obedience to authority; of experienced race; of wonderful, wonderful common sense; dull but capable, slow but persevering, severe but just, of little humor but genuine; a laboring man, despising game and sport; building a house that endures, a framed house. He buys the Indian's moccasins and baskets, then buys his hunting-grounds, and at length forgets where he is buried and plows up his bones."Author: Henry David Thoreau

274. "What did you tell them?""I don't recall. I think I mentioned your discipline and ability to follow orders. I may have said something about you being a team player."Derek emitted a strangled cough."Why?" I demanded."It seemed like a good idea at the time." Curran resumed hammering."I'm sorry," I said into the phone, sticking me finger into my other ear so I could hear. "His Majesty tends to exaggerate things. I'm not a team player. I'm undisciplined and I have a problem with authority. Also, the Beast Lord can't hammer for shit."On the roof Derek was laughing his head off."Author: Ilona Andrews

275. "Authority pisses me off. I think everyone should be able to drink and get loud whenever they want."Author: James Hetfield

276. "W. S. Plumer said, "We never see sin aright until we see it as against God...All sin is against God in this sense: that it is His law that is broken, His authority that is despised, His government that is set at naught...Pharaoh and Balaam, Saul and Judas each said, ‘I have sinned'; but the returning prodigal said, ‘I have sinned against heaven and before thee'; and David said, ‘Against Thee, Thee only have I sinned."Author: Jerry Bridges

277. "Foreign nationals entering the United States illegally who are taken into custody by the Border Protection Corps or by State or local law enforcement authorities must be promptly delivered to a federal law enforcement authority."Author: John Culberson

278. "I've always had trouble with authority."Author: John Milius

279. "The NRA provided that in America each industry should be organized into a federally supervised trade association. It was not called a corporative. It was called a Code Authority."Author: John T. Flynn

280. "Homo sapiens is the species that invents symbols in which to invest passion and authority, then forgets that symbols are inventions."Author: Joyce Carol Oates

281. "It is a bad indication when, in any period, men will so exalt their confessions that they force the Scriptures to a secondary importance, illustrated in one era, when as Tulloch remarks: 'Scripture as a witness, disappeared behind the Augsburg Confession" ...No decrees of councils; no ordinances of synods; no "standard" of doctrines; no creed or confession, is to be urged as authority in forming the opinions of men. They may be valuable for some purposes, but not for this; they may be referred to as interesting parts of history, but not to form the faith of Christians; they may be used in the church to express its belief, not to form it."Author: L.S. Chafer

282. "In the run-up to the election, Stephen Harper had rolled out the rhetoric on the need for clean and transparent government, expressing frustration with Paul Martin's Liberals over their alleged secrecy and obstructionism. "When a government starts trying to cancel dissent or avoid dissent," Harper declared in a statement to be later viewed as notable for ironic content, "Is frankly when it is rapidly losing its moral authority to govern."Author: Lawrence Martin

283. "Perhaps the difference between a professor and a bus driver is that the professor can say stupid things with complete authority while the bus driver is not authorized to make brilliant insights."Author: Les Back

284. "Things change after people are married," she finally said, talking more to herself than to him. "People change.""Not usually for the better.""How would you know? Are you an authority on marriage...or on me, for that matter? You act just like Daniel, as if you know what's best for me. Well, maybe I should start deciding what I want!"His eyes gleamed like a cat's. "Maybe you should. What do you want?"She wanted Daniel.But she wanted Daniel to be different. "That's none of your concern.""But it is.I'm afraid I've already nvested a lot in you.""Invested what? A lot of what?""A lot of worry and vexation." His casual tone of voice belied his words."Author: Lisa Kleypas

285. "We have one authority and one law and everyone has the responsibility to follow that law and that authority."Author: Mahmoud Abbas

286. "… for there are times when disobedience heals a very ailing part of the self. It relieves the human spirit's distress at being forced into narrow boundaries. For the nearly powerless, defying authority is often the only power available."Author: Malidoma Patrice Somé

287. "As for the boys..."vulnerable fathers turn to time-honored defensive responses to maintain the function that father knows best' Parents, especially fathers, teach their sons to obey authority no matter what."Author: Martha Stout

288. "The annoying this was that their authority loomed larger by the hour. One is not aware of it, but these men are kings. Throwing open my rooms, they would say, "Everything here belongs to us." They would fall upon my scraps of thought: "This is ours." They would challenge my story, "Talk," and my story would put itself at their service. In haste, I would rid myself of myself. I distributed my blood, my innermost being among them, lent them the universe, gave them the day. Right before their eyes, though they were not at all startles, I became a drop of water, a spot of ink. I reduced myself to them. The whole presence of me passed in full view before them, and when at last nothing was present but my perfect nothingness and there was nothing more to see, they ceased to see me too. Very irritated, they stood up and cried out, "All right, where are you? Where are you hiding? Hiding is forbidden, it is an offense," etc."Author: Maurice Blanchot

289. "He believes that a real work of art can be owned but should not be subject to capture; that it should radiate such authority, such bizarre but confident beauty (or unbeauty) that it can't be undone by even the most ludicrous sofas or side tables. A real work of art should rule the room, and the clients should call up not to complain about the art but to say that the art has helped them understand how the room is all a horrible mistake, can Peter suggest a designer to help them start over again."Author: Michael Cunningham

290. "Easter is reflecting upon suffering for one thing, but it also reflects upon Jesus and his non compliance in the face of great authority where he holds to his truth - so there's two stories there."Author: Michael Leunig

291. "We must become a people who are in submission, that is, submitted completely to the mission of the Church, 'in statu missionis.' Thus, living fully within the mainstream of grace, under the mantle of God's divine authority, and by uniting ourselves to the obedience of Christ on the cross, we participate in the reversal of Adam's sin."Author: Michael O'Brien

292. "Often it takes outer authority to send us on the path to our own inner authority."Author: Richard Rohr

293. "I believe in a lively disrespect for most forms of authority."Author: Rita Mae Brown

294. "Any government will work if authority and responsibility are equal and coordinate. This does not insure "good" government, it simply insures that it will work. But such governments are rare — most people want to run things, but want no part of the blame. This used to be called the "backseat driver" syndrome."Author: Robert A. Heinlein

295. "No statement should be believed because it is made by an authority."Author: Robert A. Heinlein

296. "I was seen in earlier years by family members and people of authority as somebody wasting his time. I had trouble with the restrictions of conformity. It made me edgy."Author: Robert Redford

297. "Jesus has been exalted. Through his resurrection and ascension the King has been enthroned. All authority has been given to him. The universe is his. His authority is absolute and exhaustive. You will never breathe air that doesn't belong to him and you will suffocate if you try."Author: Sam Allberry

298. "Freedom is not possible without authority - otherwise it would turn into chaos and authority is not possible without freedom - otherwise it would turn into tyranny."Author: Stefan Zweig

299. "...Man has a tyrant, ignorance. I voted for the demise of that particular tyrant. That particular tyrant has engendered royalty, which is authority based on falsehood, whereas science is authority based on truth. Man should be governed by science alone.""And conscience," added the bishop."It's the same thing. Conscience is the quota of innate science we each have inside us."Author: Victor Hugo

300. "The world of 1906...was a stable and a civilized world in which the greatness and authority of Britain and her Empire seemed unassailable and invulnerably secure. In spite of our reverses in the Boer War it was assumed unquestioningly that we should always emerge "victorious, happy and glorious" from any conflict. There were no doubts about the permanence of our "dominion over palm and pine", or of our title to it. Powerful, prosperous, peace-loving, with the seas all round us and the Royal Navy on the seas, the social, economic, international order seemed to our unseeing eyes as firmly fixed on earth as the signs of the Zodiac in the sky."Author: Violet Bonham Carter

Authority Quotes Pictures

Today's Quote

Zane brought her hand to his chest, over his heart and she felt the strong rapid beat through his shirt. "Feel that?" His throat worked as he swallowed. "It would break if I fell for you and anything happened that would take you away from me."--Zane to Willow in 'The Edge of Sin' in the Real Men Last all Night anthology" Author: Cheyenne McCray